Wave power is one of the most abundant, clean, and renewable energy sources on Earth. The World Energy Council has estimated the world wide annual amount of wave power energy at 17.5 PWh. This is comparable to annual worldwide electric energy consumption, which is currently estimated at 16 PWh. Thus, wave power has the potential to provide a large portion of the world's electric energy needs if wave power can be tapped efficiently. In addition to abundance, wave power has several other advantages when compared to some of the other clean and renewable energy sources. For example, wave power has a relatively high power density. While the power density of both solar and wind power in typical favorable sites may be of the order of 1 kW/m2, wave power in a typical North Atlantic wave (wave height of H of about 3.5 m and period of T of about 9 s) yields 108 kW per meter of wave crest. A wave energy converter extending about 40 m in the vertical direction could yield a power density of about 2.7 kW·m−2 if the wave power is efficiently extracted, e.g., near 100% energy conversion. Wave power systems could thus produce more than twice the power per system area that wind or solar power systems could produce operating at 100% conversion efficiency. However, most clean energy sources have far less than 100% energy conversion efficiency. For example, a theoretical limit for conversion of wind power is believed to be around 59%. If wave power conversion can be made close to 100% efficient, the accessible power density of waves can be greater by a factor of more than four when compared to wind power, even if wind energy conversion operates near its theoretic efficiency limit. Furthermore, wave energy is commonly available on a more consistent basis and can be better predicted in advance than can wind energy, reducing the need for backup power sources. Finally, since a large portion of the world's population lives close to ocean shores, the distance between energy production and consumption may be small for wave power, reducing transmission losses. Wave power may thus be an excellent solution for providing clean, renewable energy to densely populated coastal areas.